Normal life hit as city gets region’s heaviest downpour for second day

Normal life was crippled as Chandigarh received the region’s heaviest rainfall for the second consecutive day during the past 24 hours.

Before the miseries caused by previous night’s 119.5 mm downpour could be healed, the city was lashed by another spell of 70.7 mm rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning till 8.30 am on Monday, which was again the heaviest in Punjab and Haryana, the weathermen have confirmed.

With this, Chandigarh received 213 mm rainfall during this month, which was highest in the past decade and was 37% more than the normal precipitation.

The heaviest monsoon rainfall during the past 48 hours brought respite from the sweltering heat but left major parts of the tricity region, comprising Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula, inundated. Roads caved in, trees and poles were uprooted at several locations, damaging the public property, and major disruption in power and water supply badly threw life out of gear for the second consecutive day.

The ill-preparedness, indifference and callous attitude of the civic authorities was once again exposed with the residents continuing to fend for themselves in the waterlogged roads and streets.

The residents once again experienced long power outages besides voltage fluctuations and frequent tripping in major parts of the tricity.

The electricity officials attributed the major disruption to breakdown due to rain and thunderstorm.

Sharing the monthly data, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Chandigarh received 213 mm of rainfall between June 1 and 30, which was 37% excess from the normal rainfall of 155.5 mm.

The previous highest rainfall of 251.5 mm in Chandigarh during the month of June was recorded in 2013.

The year-wise data for June showed that the city got 43.7 mm downpour in 2014, 63.9 mm in 2015, 133.6 mm in 2016, 103.1 mm in 2017, 142.9 mm in 2018, 24.8 mm in 2019, 131.1 mm in 2020, 119.4 mm in 2021, 60.9 mm in 2022, 142.9 mm in 2023, and the decade’s lowest of 11.9 mm rainfall was received in 2024.

The IMD has issued a yellow alert for heavy rain coupled with thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, while in Punjab alone on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh recorded a maximum of 30.7 and minimum 24.1 degrees Celsius on Monday.

The weathermen have predicted a generally and partly cloudy sky with thunderstorms and rain in the tricity for the next five days.